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LJP rules out indirect tie-up with JD(U)

By K. Balchand

PATNA, JAN. 10. With the Lok Janshakti Party ruling out any possibility of covert seat arrangement with the Janata Dal (United) which finalised its tie-up with the Bharatiya Janata Party, the State is headed for a multi-cornered battle in the Assembly elections.

The LJP, which was striving for an alliance with the JD (U) minus the BJP, today retaliated by slamming the doors on the latter and announced that it would contest all the 243 seats on its own steam.

With its president and Union Steel Minister, Ram Bilas Paswan, away campaigning in Sitamarhi, the party spokesman here, Sanjay Singh, said that the JD (U) leader, Nitish Kumar, was misleading the people by claiming that there was still scope for indirectly sharing seats with the LJP. The LJP has decided not to hold any talks with the JD (U) and fight it out against both the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal and the communal forces led by the National Democratic Alliance.

Today's developments underscore the opposition parties' failure to bury their hatchet. They are today as divided as in 1995 when Lalu Prasad romped home with a slender majority all on his own. Mr. Prasad took advantage of the differences in the opposition camp even in 2000 to emerge as the largest party and upstaged Nitish Kumar to see that his wife, Rabri Devi, got back her seat.

This time the RJD and the Congress are working to finalise a seat sharing arrangement, unlike in 2000 when the latter had contested on its own strength and later extended its support to the RJD and formed a coalition government under Rabri Devi.

The talks between the RJD and the Congress has diminished the LJP's chances of having any truck with the latter. Unlike in the Lok Sabha elections, the RJD would be fighting the LJP in the next month's election hoping that Mr. Paswan further splits the anti-Lalu votes.

Mr. Prasad might make up the exit of the LJP by roping in the Communist Party of India, while retaining the CPI(M) and the Nationalist Congress Party as his allies.

Dividing the opposition votes would be the front floated by a few parties including the Samajwadi Party, which suffered a blow today with the arrest of its state unit chief, Daddan Pehalwan, and the CPI-ML. Add to this the presence of the Bahujan Samaj Party, at least in its areas of influence.

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